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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25528651">a smile like sunlight</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearethewitches/pseuds/wearethewitches'>wearethewitches</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supergirl (TV 2015)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established Relationship, F/F, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Secret Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:07:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,649</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25528651</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearethewitches/pseuds/wearethewitches</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She itches to fix Kara's collar.</p><p> </p><p>-</p><p>"coming out to the public" prompt for aspiemirror/@fangirldk</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kara Danvers/Cat Grant</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>231</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>SuperCat Christmas in July 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a smile like sunlight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/AspieMirror/gifts">AspieMirror</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She itches to fix Kara’s collar.</p><p>It’s an action Cat Grant had only very occasionally indulged in, when Kara was her personal assistant – and <em>never</em> in front of prying eyes. But currently, Kara is making it very difficult for Cat to continue with her work, standing there in front of her fishbowl office with Patton from Publishing, her jacket awry and the lapel stuck backwards under itself. Cat is a perfectionist and she’s never denied that…and it riles her to see what she <em>knows</em> was a stunning appearance that morning to be suddenly desecrated by a <em>folded collar, </em>of all things.</p><p>“Kara!” she can’t help but bark, the Kryptonian woman turning sharply, bright blue eyes meeting Cat’s in an instant. Ordering her over – “Come here,” she says, narrowing her eyes – Cat gracefully stands, meeting Kara on the other side of her desk.</p><p>“Ms Grant?” Kara says her name questioningly, forehead furrowing oh-so slightly in concern. Cat ignores the title – they’d agreed it would be suspicious amongst their co-workers – but finds herself reaching up to correct the issue that has been bothering her. Kara’s frown disappears, replaced by a fond, amused set of raised eyebrows. “Was that bothering you?”</p><p>“Very much so,” replies Cat, voice low and tight. She attempts, briefly, to flatten the crease, but it’s no use. “That will have to go to the dry-cleaners.”</p><p>“It’s just a jacket, Ms Grant.” Kara smiles fleetingly, as if this is something to be <em>entertained</em> by.</p><p>Glowering slightly, Cat says to her, “Image is everything. To me, to this company…”</p><p>Kara murmurs quiet enough that Patton, watching in wait, can’t hear her, “I have a feeling it matters more to you, Cat. It’s just a jacket.”</p><p>“One wrong photo…” she says, wordlessly and falsely threatening her former assistant. Cat wants so desperately to kiss her. It’s a heart-aching urge, knowing it can’t be fulfilled until they’re well and truly hidden from the world inside the Grant Penthouse. Kara reaches between them, taking her hand to briefly brush against her thumb; it’s more than Cat expected, this early in the day.</p><p>“There won’t be any photos,” Kara promises, before stepping back, dropping her hand. She smiles in her retreat, winking briefly before turning around. When she joins Patton, he asks her a question and in the quiet of the office, Cat can hear him speaking.</p><p>“You get on with Ms Grant really well.”</p><p>Kara smiles brilliantly, the type that exudes sunshine and dares anyone to challenge what she says. “Of course, I do! I was her assistant before, you know – longest running for the job,” she jokes, before making her excuses to leave, Patton mollified…for now.</p><p>Cat sighs.</p><p><em>No more fixing of collars, </em>she thinks to herself, returning to her throne. It’s a shame.</p><p>Seating herself, Cat picks her glasses up from where they hand around her neck, returning to proofing tomorrow’s articles. Red pen in hand, she makes her corrections, idly wishing that it was acceptable to critique and correct her employees’ fashion sense. Then maybe, she could make Kara look her best without it seeming like a personal remark.</p><p>Internally sighing, the self-proclaimed ‘Queen of All Media’ repeats her earlier thought: no more fixing of collars.</p><p>The things she does for love…</p>
<hr/><p>They’re edging over the line of propriety. Kara knows that. Standing amongst all the other parents waiting for the bus of children to return from their gone-late trip, Kara feels an internal buzz of something like fear or apprehension. She’s already gotten a few blatant looks from people wondering who she is – but Carter’s school, thankfully, is full of the elite. No-one wants to look stupid, asking who she’s here for, when they should already know all their fellow parents from PTA meetings and the like.</p><p>Checking her phone when it <em>plings, </em>Kara sees a text from Carter. <strong><em>Two blocks away.</em></strong> Focusing, Kara searches for Carter’s heartbeat and indeed, finds it a block and a half away. The sound of the bus is easy to follow when she knows it’s coming and Kara has to force herself not to look forwards, to where it enters the school gate.</p><p>By the time Carter has exited the bus, a quiet has fallen amongst the parents, who eagerly await their children with glee. Kara has to restrain herself – and part of that stings.</p><p>
  <em>It was our own choice.</em>
</p><p>Carter finds his way over to her and he is <em>so tall.</em> He even has his overly-long hair – that Cat in no way approves of – up in a bun on top of his head, the shorter strands at the nape of his neck moving at even the slightest wind where they’ve fallen out of his rubber band. Kara wrinkles her nose at the sight of it.</p><p>“Hi Kara!” He greets, hauling his rucksack onto his shoulder. “How’s Mom?”</p><p>“Ms Grant is expecting you at the penthouse,” replies Kara, subtly reminding him of reality. A light in his eyes fades, his smile tilting downwards.</p><p>“Oh. Right. On home, then?”</p><p>“The driver is waiting outside the school,” Kara says, craning her head to find his teacher with the sign-out sheet. Already, a line is forming, full of Carter’s classmates and their guardians, the bus-driver huffing as a student pushes their way past to get back on the bus for a lost set of earphones.</p><p>Carter follows her gaze. “You’re signing me out. I didn’t know you could do that.”</p><p>“I got that privilege my third year at Catco,” Kara says lightly, nudging him to join the line. She acutely aware of the families on the sidelines and behind them both ‘subtly’ listening in as she greets their supervising teacher for the day, who looks between Carter and Kara with a quirked eyebrow.</p><p>“You’re not his mother.”</p><p>“No – I’m Kara Danvers, her assistant. I’ve already been listed as an approved adult,” she says, flashing a winning smile. The teacher, however, seems sceptical, flipping beneath the sign-out sheet to another sheet of paper.</p><p>“…name?”</p><p>“Kara Danvers,” Kara recites, even as Carter butts in.</p><p>“I know her, Ms Deacon. She’s picked me up before. Can we go?”</p><p>“Not until I see her name,” mutters ‘Ms Deacon’, who pauses and frowns dramatically. “Occupation.”</p><p>“Reporter for CatCo Worldwide Media and Companies,” she says, before hurriedly adding, “former personal assistant to Ms Grant. I was promoted a few years back.”</p><p>“Uh-huh…” Ms Deacon purses her lips, then turns around the sign-out sheet. Kara breathes a sign of relief, taking the offered pen to scribble down her name. Immediately after handing it back, Carter grabs her hand.</p><p>“Come on, Kara! Let’s go!”</p><p>“I’m coming,” she murmurs, letting him pull her away from the crowd. As she looks back on them, she says to Carter, “Don’t tell your mother.”</p><p>Her son looks back with her, smile fading. “…I won’t. Promise.”</p><p>Kara puts a hand on his shoulder, desperately wanting to embrace him. Instead, she asks in a falsely chipper voice, “How was your trip?”</p><p>Carter plays along.</p><p>“It was great! We saw lizards and loads of rocks-”</p>
<hr/><p>It’s not stupid to want to be free with her actions – for <em>both </em>of them to be free, speaking and acting the way they choose. Cat knows that Kara already has to hide so many things from the world and it’s unfair for something as simple as a relationship to be hidden. If only a scandal wouldn’t come of revealing it.</p><p>Gliding through the penthouse, slippered feet sliding along the glossy floor, Cat comes up beside Kara where she sits at the dining table. It’s made of glass – much of her own personal style has seeped not only into her office life, but her home life as well – so for a moment, Cat is wondering if she’s seeing the spread in front of her correctly.</p><p>“Those are our wedding photos,” she says to her wife.</p><p>“Hmm…”</p><p>“Why are you arranging our wedding photos inside a news spread?”</p><p>Kara looks up at her with a soft look to her face. She looks so different without her glasses, hair matching Carter’s for ridiculousness in its topknot. There’s the usual indecipherable scribble made explicitly for formatting news articles among the photos, laid on top of another issue of the Tribune.</p><p>“I know that we can’t keep this secret forever,” is what her wife says. “And frankly, I’d rather we be more open about it, even though I know you like keeping your private life separate from work.”</p><p>“Kara-” she attempts to cut in, but Kara carries on.</p><p>“So, I started thinking about how we could deal with the fall-out or even control the initial stages of coming out. You’d use the Tribune or maybe have one of your friends take the main stage with everything – but I don’t want that. Those would be your friends, your contacts…” Kara glances back at the photos, of Cat in soft blue and an adorable, thousand-dollar flower crown and Kara in white that faded into pink at the hems, white and purple daises tucked into a crown braid. <em>That colour-scheme was lovely,</em> Cat remembers fondly.</p><p>“But I’m a reporter, <em>your </em>reporter,” Kara continues, “and I wanted to be the one to write about our relationship. I want to tell everyone about missing you when you left for Washington, about seeing your smile when Carter surprised me with a hug the day you came back – I don’t want my experiences tainted by someone else.”</p><p>Her heart pounds inside her chest. “Do you promise not to be overly sappy and dramatic?”</p><p>“Coming from the self-proclaimed ‘Queen of All Media’?” Kara smiles that blinding smile at her, overjoyed at her unsaid permission to be free. “Of course not. I’ll get James to proof-read it. You’ll have to wait to get your advance copy to read it.”</p><p>“Kara, you menace,” Cat sighs, before bending down to kiss her wife.</p><p>The things she does for love.</p>
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